Interviews

Recovering in that hospital bed from major surgery, you ask yourself — why me? And you find yourself wondering whether there is anyone else out there who's been through this traumatic experience. That's why it is so important to share these experiences to help you realise that you are not alone. In fact our Patron, actress Amanda Redman, suffered two ectopic pregnancies. "When I was asked to become the patron of the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, I agreed with alacrity as I have had two ectopic pregnancies in the last eight years. The first was diagnosed fairly early, but the second was not discovered until much later which resulted in my nearly losing my life. This I am sure, was due to the lack of knowledge and expertise in the medical profession at that time. I feel that anything that can help make more people, and not just General Practitioners, more aware is extremely important in order to combat this potentially lethal and distressing condition." The following are extracts from an interview with Amanda from a health magazine, following her starring role in the second series of the television drama "Hope and Glory": ..Today, at 40, Amanda has head turning looks and is up beat and resolute about the future, but behind her beaming smile lies awful heartache. She's had to get through some terribly tough times, as her dreams of a second baby ended in tragedy again and again. "...I've had 2 ectopic pregnancies and it's much more common than people think — 1 in 100 pregnancies. Eight women a year die from it and the reason is usually lack of awareness of it and so it is misdiagnosed... The first time it happened to me it wasn't so bad. I hadn't even known I was pregnant until I was rushed into hospital with copious amounts of bleeding and quite extraordinary pain. The second time, I did know I was expecting and was very thrilled to be having my second child. I was making a film with Griff Rhys-Jones and I told everyone on the set that I was having a baby." "We were about to shoot a scene and I really wasn't feeling very well. The cameraman was looking through the view finder at me, setting up the shot, when he suddenly went, 'Oh my God! Look at Amanda, she's gone grey!' All the colour had drained out of my face and I had this deathly pallor. Everyone insisted I go straight to hospital. I felt light-headed, but on the way I was calm, even jokey." But when she got there all that changed. "A nurse was giving me a transvaginal scan when she abruptly turned off the machine and announced one word 'Ectopic!' Just one word. I screamed out loud because I remembered the pain of the first one. Panic broke out to get me into surgery. My feet didn't touch the ground. They couldn't operate immediately, as I'd just eaten, and they had to wait for the food to be digested." "My then partner arrived as we waited and finally they wheeled me into the operating theatre. They allowed him to come with me and hold my hand — I thought that meant for sure I was dying. I was weeping and the surgeon, to whom I am forever indebted, asked why? 'Because I think I'm going to die,' I replied. He told me, 'No you're not. You've got the A team here and we're not going to let you go.' " All that Amanda remembers of the operation is that as she went under the anaesthetic she kept repeating a message to her little girl, 'I love you, Emily.' "...I was back at work in three weeks. Even so, I felt very frail and very vulnerable... emotionally I'm still not over it, even now seven years later."